“‘Once we’re 100 percent sure Joe Lieberman is retired, we will allow it to die,’ said [Connecticut for Lieberman Party] current chairman and very unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate, John Mertens. ‘We’ll meet again in 2010, and that will probably be our last meeting ever.'” [Hartford Advocate, via Tom Tomorrow]

Speaking of fears of religious takeovers of proud nations, let’s visit the Fox website…

President Obama misquoted a familiar Bible verse during a faith-based address at the National Prayer Breakfast.

“Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint,” the president said during a speech to several thousand people at the breakfast.

But the actual passage, from Isaiah 40:31, states: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Well, if you want to go there, the actual passage states this:

וקוי יהוה יחליפו כח יעלו אבר כנשרים ירוצו ולא ייגעו ילכו ולא ייעפו׃

But since God’s Language is English, and He personally dictated the contents of the King James Bible, Fox Nation is correct. Obama, quoting from the New International Version, revealed that he’s going straight to Hell.

Obama Botches Bible Verse at Prayer Breakfast [Fox Nation]

Attention Fox Nation: There Is More Than One Version Of The Bible [Media Matters]

“In the last several months, Politics Daily has learned that the Palin family lawyer, Alaska attorney Thomas Van Flein, has filed applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark ‘Sarah Palin®’ and ‘Bristol Palin®.'” [via Political Wire]

As we write, it’s 10 a.m. in Cairo, and crowds are already flooding into Tahrir Square for the “Day of Departure” — the departure, they hope, being Hosni Mubarak’s. When this is posted, it will be 2 p.m. If shit’s going down, it’s going down now.

Al Jazeera is repeating Omar Suleiman’s promise Thursday that protesters won’t be forced out of the square. The New York Times is is holding out a ray of hope:

The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.

Today’s metaphor: National Geographic moved the Pyramids. Can the protesters?

The Case of the Moving Pyramids [Museum of Hoaxes]

“House Republicans plan to sidestep a charged debate over the distinction between ‘forcible rape’ and ‘rape’ by altering the language of a bill banning taxpayer subsidies for abortions… The modifier ‘forcible’ will be dropped so that the exemption covers all forms of rape, as well as cases of incest and the endangerment of the life of the mother.” [Politico]

Our guest columnist this morning is marking time while we wait for the latest news to break.

Most early evidence of cat domestication comes from ancient Egypt. Some experts believe that the Egyptians may have tamed and bred felines to produce a distinct species by the 20th or 19th century B.C.

Cats are frequently represented in Egyptian mythology in the form of the feline goddesses Bastet, Sekhmet, and other deities. Cat art and mummified remains are known from as far back as 4,000 years ago.

But researchers have also stumbled across hints that cats were domesticated much earlier. Experts have found 10,000-year-old engravings and pottery that depict cats dating to the Neolithic period (late Stone Age), [French archaeologist Jean-Denis] Vigne said. He notes such finds provide evidence that, even then, cats had a spiritual significance.

Oldest Known Pet Cat? 9,500-Year-Old Burial Found on Cyprus [National Geographic, 2004]

Image: Mask from a Cat Mummy, Roman Period, 1st Century AD [Solar Navigator]

We are reliably informed that this is called “snow”. Apparently it’s what happens when Chicago prays to the wrong gods.

City says motorists shouldn’t have taken the Drive [Chicago Tribune, via Blogenfreude]